Disclaimers: Let it be known that I own nothing LotR.
Author's Note:
This is the new version of chapter two. It's like... completely different. Woo. :)
You're My Light in the Dark
Chapter 2
I was in a cloud of mist. It wrapped itself around me, and no matter how much I ran or tried to get out I found that I couldn't. Whispering. I glanced around nervously, only seeing the white mist, the fog. Where were the voices coming from? I couldn't make out what they were saying. They were light, elegant, unworldly voices.
"You are unhappy, are you not?"
It was a woman who said it. Her voice was calming and I suddenly realized there wasn't any more whispering now. I glanced around again, looking for the woman. "Hello?" I called out uncertainly. I received no answer; all I heard was only the echo of my own voices it rippled through the mist.
When I awoke, I instinctively sat up abruptly and quickly regretted it when my forehead came in contact with something hard. "Ow!" I lay back down and rubbed the sore spot and found that my noggin had collided with a low hanging branch. Wait... a branch?
I blinked several times, even tried rubbing them to see if I was hallucinating. But I wasn't. I reached up and prodded the wood. Nope, the branch very real. I scooted over a bit so I could sit up without any incident and found that I was sitting it the middle of a forest.
"I must be dreaming... " I commented aloud to myself. I got to my feet but soon enough was on my knees, clenching my jaw against the onslaught of pain I had just brought upon myself. "Okay, nope, not dreamin'," I hissed in pain.
Trees groaned around me. Birds chirped. Great, I'm in my pjs somewhere the middle of a damn forest and I must look a horrid mess. Where the hell am I?
After waiting a few minutes for the ache in my feet to dull a bit, I got back up to my feet, careful to stay up on the balls of my feet and not put any pressure on my heels. Although it still hurt a lot, at least I was able to stand without collapsing. I glanced around again. I couldn't help but notice how the trees were turning colors, beautiful reds and golds amongst the slim few that stayed green.
That's weird, I thought to myself. All the trees had already lost all of their leaves weeks ago, and seeing how it was almost Christmas, New England was sure to get hit with a foot of snow any day now. This fact only confused me more. And although I could have sworn I had never been here, where ever here was, anytime in my life, a distinct feeling of déjà vu hit me. I decided to find my way out of the forest and perhaps figure out what the hell was going on. I glanced around me, feeling a bit hopeless, as I couldn't see a clear way out.
"Perfect," I muttered sarcastically.
Frodo loved wandering and exploring the Shire. When Frodo wasn't studying or running errands for his uncle Bilbo, he would venture about with his cousins or his best friend, Sam, who also happened to be the gardener who tended the gardens around his home. Today though, his cousins Merry and Pippin had to stay at Brandy Hall for an "Important family dinner" and Sam was still busy tending to Bag End's wonderful gardens. So, Frodo was all by his lonesome and he decided to take a walk to his favorite tree and read one of his Uncle Bilbo's old books.
He walked through the woods, breathing in deep and loving the scent of all the wild flowers all about him. He came up upon his tree, and climbed up into the branches. He climbed until he reached a fairly large branch, swung his legs over it and rested his back against the trunk. He looked down at the brook underneath the tree and smiled, remembering the good times running up and down the banks with his friends when they were younger. He pulled Bilbo's book out of his bag and started to read. He was whisked away to far off places where the elves and magical creatures of Middle Earth dwelt, when suddenly he was snapped out of his reading when he heard snapping of twigs as someone approached the brook.
"Ah! Damn it!"
He laid the book in his lap and glanced down toward the ground curiously and saw a hobbit wearing strange clothing face down in dirt. Hmm, they must have tripped over the tree roots, he supposed. The hobbit sat up and Frodo immediately noticed it was a lass. She blew her bangs out of her eyes and yanked twigs out of her hair in irritation.
Frodo studied the strange lass. She sure looked odd, he thought to himself. She wasn't clad like any other lass he knew; wearing bright colored trousers and a rather large and baggy hooded shirt. He watched on as she continued to pick leaves and twigs out of her light brown hair. She glanced around, not noticing Frodo up in the tree, and let out a groan of frustration.
"Hello!" Frodo called down to her. Her head snapped up at the sound of his voice, and she looked around her, looking a bit sheepish at finding out she wasn't as alone as she had originally thought. Frodo tucked his book back in his bag and climbed out of the tree to greet the lass properly.
"Er... hi," she said a little awkwardly. "You wouldn't happen to know where we are and how to get out of here, would you?" she asked, sounding hopeful, "I'm afraid I'm a bit lost."
Frodo nodded and smiled. "Yes, I do, actually. I can show you the way out to get to the town square, if you wish?"
Something about this guy seemed so familiar to me but I couldn't put my finger on it. His curly mop of dark brown hair ruffled in the wind, and I suddenly felt self conscious as he studied me with bright blue eyes.
His choice of wardrobe was definitely... different as well. There was nothing wrong with it, mind you, but what he was wearing certainly wasn't jeans and a band tee shirt like all the other guys I knew tended to wear. He had on a pair of brown pants, the bottoms rolled up a bit, which were held up by suspenders and a white button down shirt that looked to be made out of a light weight material. Honestly, who wore suspenders anymore?
He had been nice enough to offer showing me the way out of the forest, which I had been extremely grateful for. Who knows how long I was wandering about aimlessly before he happened to stumble upon me by chance?
"Are you from around here?" he asked.
I shrugged. "To be honest, I'm not sure exactly where here is so I couldn't tell you."
He was just a step ahead of me and he turned to give me a curious glance. I had to give the guy credit for his patience; it was obvious he was just as interested and confused about me as I was about this whole situation, yet he wasn't pressing me too hard for answers. Not to mention it was hard for me to keep up with him because of my feet and all, and he kept on having to backtrack every time he realized I had started to lag too far behind.
"We're just north of Hobbiton," he explained. Realization hit me head on and I stopped dead in my tracks, not really believing what I had heard; meanwhile, my guide was completely unawares of my current dilemma and continued onward.
"Oh my-"
"What's your name?"
My brain barely registered his question over the dull roar of the frantic beatings of my heart as it rang in my ears. "What?" I asked absentmindedly. He glanced back at me again.
"What's your name? I don't believe I caught it."
"Kate. My name's Kate." I gulped nervously. "But you can call me Kat if you want. What's yours?"
He flashed me a smile. "Well, that's certainly a different name, you must not be from around here then... " he mused and stuck out a hand, "Frodo. Pleased to meet you Kate."
I felt the blood leave my face. Next thing I knew, the world seemed to spin around me. The last thing I saw was Frodo's startled face before everything went black.
Samwise Gamgee was having a very pleasant afternoon. He was doing what he did and loved best: his gardening. He was currently working on weeding a patch of his favorite yellow flowers in the front of Bag End's property. The sun beat down upon his back but a nice fall breeze was blowing about, making up for the heat of the sun's rays. He sat back on his heels and wiped the sweat that had started up on his brow, when he suddenly heard his master call for him.
"Sam!" A grunt. "Sam! Can you come and open the front door for me?"
Sam was somewhat surprised. Why was Frodo back so early? Whenever he went out with a book in hand, you could bet money that he wouldn't return until dusk for supper. After all, hadn't they parted and planned on meeting each other at the Green Dragon for the meal? Yet, ever the helper that he was, he brushed his dirt covered hands on his trousers and went to the door. He was shocked when he saw his friend and employer on the walk with a strangely dressed (and very unconscious) lass in his arms, Frodo looking a bit embarrassed at Sam's surprised and questioning glances.
"Mister Frodo?" Sam asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Can you just open the door and help me get her inside?" Frodo muttered.
"Sure thing, Mister Frodo," Sam replied opening the round, green door to the hobbit hole then took hold of the lass' feet. "Where should we bring her?"
Frodo shifted the lass' upper half in his arms as they brought her into the entrance hall, nudging the front door shut with a foot. "I was planning on taking her to the second guest bedroom."
Once again Sam raised an eyebrow but said nothing. They went throughout the hole until they came to the desired hall and to the very end, going into the bedroom on the right. They laid her on the bed and Sam finally asked the question that had been bugging him the whole while. "Who is she?"
Frodo shifted from one foot to the other, looking very uncomfortable as he gave a slight shrug. "I'm not too sure. Her name's Kate, that's all I really know about her." Frodo ran a hand through his hair and slid out of the room and went across the hall to his own to avoid any other awkward questions his friend might throw at him. The whole situation was odd enough as it was in his own mind, he didn't really feel like explaining his actions to Sam and make it sound even weirder than it was already.
He moved the strap of his bag up and over his head before dropping it to the floor beside his bed. He had just brought a strange lass he barely knew into his home and his uncle was currently at Brandy Hall visiting family, and his best friend probably thought he had bad intentions. Great.
A knock on the door cut through his thoughts. Frodo sighed. "Come on in, Sam." Sam poked his sandy colored head into the room.
"I know what you're thinking," Sam said bluntly. "I know you would never do that. Too much of a gentlehobbit, you are. I'm just curious as to who this Kate is... odd name... "
Frodo breathed a sigh of relief. "Well then, that makes two of us. She was wandering about lost in the woods. Just so happened to stumble upon me and ask my help on getting out." He started to make his way to the kitchen, Sam following close behind. Frodo filled the kettle with water and placed it over the fire, then got out two tea cups. "You see, when I asked her if she was around here, she said she didn't know where she was, so she couldn't exactly tell me. Asked her for her name, then she asked for mine. That's when she fainted, you see. Told her my name and she went as white as a sheet then keeled right over."
"Odd," Sam commented again.
"Indeed," Frodo concurred.
"Well, at least you know you're still popular," Sam said with a smile.
Frodo rolled his eyes at his friend then pulled the kettle off the fire, pouring the both of them some tea. "I wouldn't say 'popular' would be the right term. I'm more likely 'best known crack pot'."
"No, that's your uncle Bilbo, most definitely," Sam corrected, then elaborated when he saw Frodo's warning look.
"I'm not saying it's right mind you, but you and I both know that your uncle isn't the most popular hobbit. Besides, yes, you might get harassed by the most of the lot of younger hobbits we grew up with, but you don't have the whole Shire muttering things about you behind your back, at the least."
Frodo sighed, knowing Sam was more than right, sipping his tea in thought. The rest of their time together was in silence, and soon enough Sam was putting his cup in the sink and heading back outside to finish up his gardening for the day.
After cleaning up the cups and putting them back up in the cupboards, Frodo wandered down toward his hall in the hole, which had a few rooms branched off of it; his bed room and the two guest rooms. He poked his head in the room Kate was in, noticing she was still out. He closed the door softly behind him, and after retrieving his book from his room, made his way to the study to grab an armchair before the fire to read in the peace he had originally sought out.
